Typhoon Jebi: Strongest storm to hit Japan in 25 years

Tokyo issues evacuation advisories for more than a million people as it faces extreme winds and heavy rain.

04 Sep 2018 10:55 GMT

High waves triggered by Typhoon Jebi are seen at a fishing port in Aki, western Japan [Kyodo/via Reuters]

Japan has issued evacuation advisories for more than a million people as it faces extremely strong winds and heavy rain consequence of typhoon Jebi's landfall.

Jebi - whose name means "swallow" in Korean - was briefly considered a super typhoon and is the latest harsh weather to hit Japan this summer following rains, landslides, floods and record-breaking heat that killed hundreds of people.

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The storm made landfall on Shikoku, the smallest main island on Tuesday.

It raked across the western part of the largest main island, Honshu, near the city of Kobe, several hours later, heading rapidly north.

Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961, NHK public television said, with flooding covering the runways at Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

It is considered a category-3 typhoon, out of five, on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Evacuation advisories were issued as the wind and rain began picking up, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

Wind gusts of up to 208 km/h were recorded in one part of Shikoku, with forecasts as high as 216 km/h.

According to the country's meteorological agency, most of the country remains in warning.

Typhoon #Jebi is making landfall in #Japan, bringing damaging winds, torrential rain, stormy seas and the risk of coastal flooding. There's recently been a 92 mph gust at Nankishirahama Airport on the south coast of Honshu pic.twitter.com/SBhsEHJIwm